THE DASH

HOW IT WORKS

Press and hold. A ring appears under Kai and fills; when it is full it turns gold and the word RELEASE appears. Nothing happens until you let go, and holding past full costs nothing, so you can charge early and wait for the right moment. When you let go, Kai lunges forward head first, faster than he was running, and every creature in his line is released at once.

WHAT IT DOES

The release and the attack are the same act. The creatures you carried spiral up around the monument and leave the world, and that release is where your score comes from. At the same moment Kai lunges, and for as long as the lunge lasts it breaks everything that stands in his lane: red walls, bumpers, fire, and one lane of slabs at a gate. Every wall or bumper it breaks pays a small bonus of its own.

The dash works with an empty line too. With nothing to release it is a short lunge, but it still breaks what is in front of Kai, so it is always there when a wall arrives that you cannot get around. The more creatures you release with it, the longer the lunge lasts, up to the length of a line of eight.

WHEN TO DASH

Dash when changing lane is not enough: when every lane ahead is closed, when a drifter is about to close the lane you are in, or when the lane you would have to reach is two taps away and the wall is too close. Dash at a gate, because the gate's slabs only come down to a dash, one lane per dash. And dash when your line is full, because a full line earns nothing more until it is released.

Think about what the dash costs you. It always empties your line, and a release pays more the more you have gathered since the last one, so a dash thrown at the first wall of a quiet road is a release you made too early. If you can step around the wall, step around it, and save the release for when it pays.

READING THE ROAD FOR A DASH

The best dashes are planned before the ring is full. Look for a lane with two or three walls in a row: a long lunge goes through all of them, and every wall it breaks pays. Start charging as soon as you see the row, keep the charge while you line up, and let go when the first wall is just ahead, so the lunge is at its fastest when it arrives.